Seeing the Good in the Bad

A Long Way Down

Suicide is a very serious subject as so many people are lost each year because of it. Author Nick Hornby (High Fidelity, About a Boy) would know since he has battled with the thought of it. Though instead of succumbing to the act of suicide, Hornby decided to write about the subject and successfully produces a lighter, sometimes heartwarming, novel. Due to the success of the novel, Lionsgate Studios bought the distribution rights and released the film domestically this month in theatres and on Video on Demand.

New Year’s Eve night, on a London rooftop, four strangers accidentally ruin each other’s plan for starting the New Year: committing suicide. However, after a small discussion, the four strangers decide to hold off their New Year’s plans and opt instead to postpone killing themselves for a later date. The hope is maybe they can help each other changes their minds.

Having read the novel, and being personally touched by it, I was reluctant to give the film a view. Putting my personal feelings of the book aside, I was still a little disappointed with the movie. What I was disappointed with (the only thing really) was the character development. There was none. The reasons on why each of the characters wanting to commit suicide is muddled and sometimes unclear. I don’t want to spoil the film with their reasons, but somehow the reason each person has is treated like they are simple and selfish reasons. This is an amazing ensemble cast with Pierce Brosnan (GoldenEye), Toni Collette (The Sixth Sense), Imogen Poots (Need for Speed), and Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad). The characters were the only thing I compared to their novel counterparts because each one has a very unique personality and I wanted to see how this cast translated them to the screen. Each actor does an awesome job with what little it seemed they had to work with. The two performances that stood out for me were Brosnan’s Martin and Collette’s Maureen. Brosnan, known more for being smooth and suave, is outspoken and sometimes a little conceded. Collette shows her range with the quiet, reserved Maureen.

I appreciated the way French director Pascal Chaumeil (UN plan parfait) tries to show the inner emotion within each character. He achieves this by using a lot of close-ups. Another way is by sometimes only having one actor in the shot at a time. This way the audience is focused on the character and the feelings they are trying to portray.

Yes the film is different from the novel and understandably so. The book has a lot of emotion and inner dialog from each character that it’s hard for any actor to communicate. With that being said, I do still recommend the film so you can see good performances from a good group of actors.

The Verdict: Worth Your Time.